Teaching about the Voyages of Columbus
The voyage of Columbus in 1492 is a turning point in world history.
After 1492, peoples and civilizations of long-separated regions began to develop
connections that have led to the incipient global community of the 1990s. It
is their global significance that justifies a prominent place in today's school
curriculum for the four voyages of Columbus to the Western Hemisphere, not
the mere fact of their 500th anniversary in 1992 and thereafter. Educators,
therefore, should use the Columbian Quincentenary as a ripe time to renew and
reform teaching and learning about these events of long ago that still affect
most peoples and places of our world today.
THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE
The far-reaching and transforming interactions of peoples in
the Western and Eastern Hemispheres, which occurred after 1492, are known today
as the "Columbian Exchange," the title of a seminal book by Alfred W. Crosby.
Crosby has provided an ecological perspective on the conditions
and consequences of the Columbian voyages that should be included in the school
curriculum. He has examined how plants, pathogens, and animals moved from one
hemisphere to the other and changed natural environments and cultures. He has
described the devastating effects of Eastern Hemisphere microbes on Western
Hemisphere peoples and the subsequent shifts in the genetic composition of
populations in the Americas. However, Crosby has emphasized that the "Columbian
Exchange" has not been one-sided. Certainly European and African plants, animals,
goods, and ideas have affected the Amerindians. But peoples of the Western
Hemisphere have influenced the Europeans, Africans, and Asians too, especially
in their cultivation of crops and preparation of foods.
Elementary and secondary school teachers should use Crosby's
concept of the "Columbian Exchange" to help their students acquire an ecological
perspective on world history. Thus, they will learn how cultural diffusion
and social changes have shaped our modern world. And they will understand Crosby's
most important message: Once begun, the "Columbian Exchange" cannot be reversed.
The Columbian voyages and the subsequent Age of Exploration and Discovery have
forged inseparable bonds between once separated peoples and civilizations,
and there is no turning back.
GEOGRAPHY IN HISTORY
Ideas of geography are indispensable aids to interpreting and
understanding events and developments of history, such as the Columbian voyages
and their consequences. This point is made convincingly by D. W. Meinig in
his ground-breaking project, THE SHAPING OF AMERICA: A GEOGRAPHICAL PERSPECTIVE
ON 500 YEARS OF HISTORY. Teachers should consult Meinig's work to understand
how ideas in geography can improve explanations of events associated with the
Columbian voyages and their global consequences.
Teachers should also use the five themes developed by the Joint
Committee on Geographic Education. These five themes are location, place, relationships
within places, movement, and regions. They have been endorsed as foundations
of geography education by three prominent organizations: The National Geographic
Society, the Association of American Geographers, and the National Council
for Geographic Education. These five themes, applied to inquiries about the
Columbian voyages, can be used to bring a geographic perspective to events
and developments in history.
THE PERSON IN HISTORY
As educators bring the often-neglected ecological and geographical
perspectives to the study of the Columbian voyages, they must be careful to
remember the importance of the great or prominent persons in history, such
as Columbus. The term "great person" in history is not used here to denote
extraordinary goodness or virtue; rather, it is applied only to those who have
had the most far-reaching effects on the shape of our world. Thus, Columbus
can be considered a great man because his decisions and deeds have had great
global impact, from his era to our own times.
One key to understanding the Columbian voyages and their consequences
is accurate information and interpretation about Columbus and his deeds. Teachers
and students need to distinguish the many myths from realities about the life
and times of Columbus. They should, therefore, consult the best biographical
literature on Columbus. One recommended source is the time-honored biography
by Samuel Eliot Morison, ADMIRAL OF THE OCEAN SEA, which emphasizes the skills
of Columbus as a sailor, leader, and visionary.
A new biography by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto has won high praise
from scholarly reviewers for its judicious treatment of Columbus within his
European context, as a man of a particular era, culture, and place in history.
In this balanced and unbiased biography, Columbus's strengths and weaknesses
are examined. Thus, for example, the author reveals Columbus's extraordinary
achievements as a navigator and explorer and his great failures as a colonizer
and administrator. Fernandez-Armesto's scholarly biography is a blend of sympathy
and antipathy about the trials and triumphs of Columbus, who is shown to be
neither a pure villain nor an undiminished hero. Teachers ought to follow the
example of Felipe Fernandez-Armesto in developing realistic classroom portrayals
of Columbus.
MULTIPLE VIEWPOINTS
A persistent threat to accurate and balanced treatments of
the Columbian voyages is ethnocentric or monolithic interpretation. The school
curriculum has often ignored or glossed over the diverse viewpoints of Amerindian
and African peoples. Improved teaching and learning about the Columbian voyages
must include the various voices of this fateful encounter between the diverse
cultures of four continents and three races.
CONTACT: THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN CONTACTS ON NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURAL
An excellent scholarly source of knowledge about Amerindian viewpoints on
the European invasion of their lands is CULTURES IN INSTITUTIONS, edited by
William Fitzhugh. Teachers and students should also examine Amerindian perspectives
discussed in TWO WORLDS: THE INDIAN ENCOUNTER WITH THE EUROPEANS, 1492-1509
by S. Lyman Tyler.
African and African-American views of the Columbian voyages are
closely tied to a far-reaching and profound consequence of the "Columbian Exchange"--the
Atlantic slave trade. Two highly recommended sources for teachers are Phillip
D. Curtin's
- THE ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE
- THE TROPICAL ATLANTIC IN THE
AGE OF THE SLAVE TRADE.
In addition, Basil Davidson's THE AFRICAN SLAVE
TRADE is an excellent source that presents the African context of the
trade in human beings.
In presentations of multiple viewpoints about the conditions
and consequences of the Columbian voyages, teachers should emphasize both diversity
between groups and diversity within groups. For example, the great variations
in responses of Amerindian people to their encounters with Europeans should
be stressed in the school curriculum.
MOVE BEYOND THE TEXTBOOK
If teachers are to provide a multiplicity of viewpoints and
perspectives on the Columbian voyages, they must move beyond the textbook to
use various educational materials and resources. A recent survey of standard
textbook treatments of Columbus, by Carla Phillips and William Phillips (1991,
27-30), reveals their serious limitations. The authors demonstrate that teachers
must expose students to more accurate and profound examinations of the Columbian
voyages than are provided in the typical textbook.
Development of classroom lessons based on primary documents is
one way to provide realistic and detailed treatments of diverse viewpoints.
THE LOG OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS is one primary document that can be the basis
for challenging and illuminating teaching and learning activities.
"Columbus and the Age of Discovery," a well-designed seven-program
documentary video series about Columbus's voyages, provides another excellent
means of moving beyond the textbook to enrich teaching and learning in the
classroom. These video programs, produced by the WGBH Educational Foundation
of Boston, were broadcast initially on PBS in October of 1991. They will be
shown again on PBS channels in October of 1992 and in 1993. The director of
this video series, Zvi Dor-Ner, has also written a companion book to his television
programs, COLUMBUS AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY.
Dor-Ner's book is first rate in its presentation of the European
context of the Columbian voyages, the key events of Columbus's life, and the
global consequences of his deeds. In both his video programs and book, Dor-Ner
avoids the flawed extremes of uncritical glorification and super-critical denunciation
of Columbus, which have distorted too many treatments of his life and deeds.
Thus, teachers should make ample use of Dor-Ner's videos and companion book
in developing lessons and research projects for their students.
Write to WGBH for information about their video series, COLUMBUS
AND THE AGE OF DISCOVERY, and an accompanying TEACHER'S GUIDE: 125 Western
Avenue, Boston, MA 02134. You can purchase this series directly from the WGBH
collection, P.O. Box 2053, Princeton, NJ 08543; (800) 828-WGBH. An interactive
video disk (for IBM and MacIntosh) has been developed by Optical Data; contact
WGBH of Boston about its availability.
Successful education in schools about the Columbian voyages depends
upon the solid and ever-expanding knowledge base of the teacher. Elementary
and secondary school history teachers, therefore, must accept the never-ending
challenge of reading and learning about the life and times of Columbus to provide
themselves and their students with accurate information and interpretations.
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